Baron Ambrosia: Meet the New Ali G of Food

For those of us who like our porn low-budget, the food porn of Baron Ambrosia, who hosts the bizarre public-access TV food show Bronx Flavor, is a refreshing change from the slick, over-produced smut that dominates the airwaves. On the show, which is also streamed online, "The Baron," a louche, silk-clad culinary adventurer, motors his mauve open-topped roadster (complete with chandelier) around the Bronx, sampling the delicacies of the borough's many fresh-off-the-boat cuisines.

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A mad cross between Ali G, Anthony Bourdain, and a blaxploitation pimp, Baron Ambrosia's knowledge of immigrant eateries is matched only by his flair for perilous heroics. Whether he's gulping Liberian fried pepper sauce after an ice-locked battle with a giant clam, wooing an Indian beauty with platinum-wrapped paan, or being kidnapped by "an organization of older, lusty, violent, pastel-making gangster-women," the Baron manages to be hilarious, slightly dirty, and surprisingly erudite. The proprietors of cuchifritos joints, chimichurri trucks, and chitlins counters play along with bemused forbearance.

This self-described "quaffer of culinary consciousness" is the comedic alter ego of Justin Fornal, a thirty-one-year-old, Connecticut-born guerilla filmmaker who moved to the Bronx seven years ago. Fornal, who says the Baron is essentially an exaggerated and scripted version of himself, describes him as the quintessential outsider — "a turn-of-the-century adventurer who's approaching the Bronx as this fascinating place, full of dubious elixirs and culinary oddities."

It's this outsider perspective that allows the Baron to explore the Bronx as residents of that diverse but segregated borough rarely do. "A West African wouldn't go to a Kosovar restaurant," Fornal said. "He may feel uncomfortable. He may not know what to order."

Not so the Baron. Which is the point of the whole thing. "The Baron is awkward everywhere he goes," Fornal said. "He's wearing a purple suit and a top hat, and he's a bumbling madman. But he can go anywhere and order a meal and have a great time." And teach the rest of us to do so while he's at it.